"Consisting of members of both the Council and our
Administration, the panel on regulatory review will represent a collaborative
effort on the part of New York City government to enrich and develop our small
business community, while meeting the needs of consumers and the public at
large. In the months ahead, the panel will conduct an overview of the rules and
rulemaking procedures of City agencies, with an eye towards eliminating
redundancies and inefficiencies. These initial findings, along with a set of
recommendations, will be collected in a report, which will be published at the
end of this calendar year.

"Introductory Number 1041, sponsored by Speaker Quinn and
Council Members Sears, Weprin, Felder, Fidler, James, Liu, Mealy, Mitchell,
Reyna, Dickens and Gonzalez, establishes a three-month penalty forgiveness
period for businesses and individuals with default judgments at the
Environmental Control Board.

"The Environmental Control Board is the administrative
tribunal responsible for hearing quality-of-life violations issued by City
agencies. ECB violations make up the majority of non-parking fines for small
businesses. When businesses or individuals default on the payment of fines for
these violations, an additional fee and interest is added to the initial
judgment. The City is currently owed $200 million in unpaid fines and more than
$500 million in default judgments and interest.

"The penalty forgiveness period established by
Introductory Number 1041 will occur this fall and will allow small businesses
and homeowners an opportunity to clear their default violations while enabling
the City to collect on long-outstanding fines. It is imperative that we continue
to find new and innovative solutions such as this one to help small businesses
through this difficult economic climate.

"Small businesses are critically important to the life of
our City. That's why our Administration's Five Borough
Economic Opportunity Plan includes tools that help small business
owners gain access to financing, tap into our rich labor market, and navigate
the City's rules and permitting procedures. Through these efforts, we have been
working hard to create an environment conducive to small business growth, and
the enactment of these pieces of legislation represent another important step in
that direction.

"I would like to thank Counselor to the Mayor, Anthony
Crowell, and his staff for their work on Introductory Number 1022 and First
Deputy Finance Commissioner Rochelle Patricof, Administrative Justice
Coordinator David Goldin, Office of
Operations Director of Agency Services Carole Post, and their staff for
their work on Introductory Number 1041. I would also like to thank the Council
for approving this legislation."